


This Is Not A Date

by protectginozasquad



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Drabble Series, F/M, Set between Season 2 and 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-04 04:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20464916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectginozasquad/pseuds/protectginozasquad
Summary: A series of not-dates. Just some besties spending some time together. Bickering and not at all flirting. Set between season 2 and season 3.





	1. Sharing

**Author's Note:**

> I was prompted on tumblr to write about "not dates" that Jim and Joyce may have had which led to them being as close as they seem in season 3.

It started the way it always did. 

They had been growing closer for ages, and Hopper was trying not to notice it. Trying not to notice the way it made him feel. 

Melvald’s wasn’t strictly on his way home from the police station, but if he stopped at the gas station nearby, it didn’t seem too out of the way. Often when he was going home from the station, it was about the same time Joyce was closing up shop at the store, if she was closing. Like she did every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Yes, he knew her schedule. 

No, it wasn’t creepy at all. 

Okay, maybe it was a little creepy, he thought to himself as he picked up a pack of cigarettes from the gas station and walked out just in time to see her locking the door. 

“Oh, hey Joyce,” he called noncommittally, walking away from the gas station down the block towards her. 

“Hop,” she said, smiling at him. Maybe it was the smile that always did it. “We’re closed, you know.” 

“I know,” he said, smiling back. He pulled out a cigarette and held it up. “Share?” 

“If you insist,” she said, and they walked towards her car, leaning against it. 

Hopper took a puff before handing it to Joyce. She inhaled, choking on it just a little. 

“You never learn,” he said, trying not to notice how close they were as they leaned against the car. Her arm lightly brushed his as he took the cigarette from her. 

He had to admit, the signals were mixed. And he wasn’t ready to make the first move. Not with Bob’s death in the background, the way the boys probably both needed her so much. But he needed her, too, as much as he didn’t want to admit it. Maybe she needed him the same way. But that would have been too much to hope for. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Her voice broke through his revelry. 

“Oh,” he fumbled, taking another puff of the cigarette to stall for time. “Just thinking about… old times, I guess.” He was testing the waters. He remembered, back when they did this but while holding hands, maybe an arm wrapped around her shoulders. It had been so long, so much had happened, but it still felt like yesterday, like it would be so easy to just fall back into the way it had once been, before their fight about Lonnie, before he decided to leave, before Sara, before the boys, before all those things. He could lose himself in those memories, if he wasn’t careful. 

And he had been, more and more, maybe not thinking so much about what could have been as about what could be. Had he come back to Hawkins for Joyce? A part of him, maybe. 

“Old times, huh?” Joyce was still smiling at him when he looked back at her. “You’re funny.” 

“Funny,” he repeated. Maybe that was her way of ending the conversation, of changing the subject. 

And yet, she seemed to subtly shift closer to him again, so this time their shoulders brushed together. Maybe Hopper wasn’t crazy, maybe she was drawing towards him, too. 

The cigarette burned down eventually. 

“I should get going,” Joyce said. 

“Yeah,” Hopper said. “Me too.” He stepped away from her car without breaking their gaze. 

As he looked into her eyes, he saw confusion, or at least that’s what it looked like to him. 

It made sense. Hopper wasn’t confused. He’d kiss her and take her home and hold her tightly if she’d let him, but Diane had left him a long time ago. Bob was only a few months ago. Joyce had ever right to feel conflicted, if she even felt anything for Hopper at all. Maybe he was imagining things. 

But then she reached out and squeezed his shoulder. 

“Thanks for sharing,” she said before getting into your car. 

“Sure,” he said. “Anytime.” 

He turned around and headed back to his own car. 

They’d share another cigarette and stand too close to each other, probably in a few days. The next time he decided to stop at the gas station at just the right time. 

Maybe one day they’d hold hands again while they performed this little ritual. 

Either way, as long as he could stand close to her, taking in her warmth, he’d be grateful for that.


	2. Boundaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joyce hangs out at Hop's cabin while the kids play D&D in El's room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> headcanon: hop internally melts when joyce calls him jim

Hopper still had the almost unbreakable urge to shout “three inches!” at El’s room even though it wasn’t just her and Mike in there. 

The whole lot of those kids had stuffed themselves into El’s bedroom, jabbering on about whatever nerdy kid game they were playing this time. 

Joyce sat in the living room with him. 

“I thought you were giving him space,” Hopper said, raising an eyebrow at Joyce. 

“Oh, you know, a few inches.” 

Joyce paused before adding. “A few more than three though,” and then winked. 

Hopper rolled his eyes. 

“It’s an appropriate boundary, okay?!” 

“Uh huh,” she smiled at him before moving from the chair to sit with him on the couch. 

“Tell me how you really feel about it,” she prodded him with her elbow. 

“How I feel,” Hopper muttered, looking darkly in the direction of the closed door. “Who cares how I feel? What matters is what’s appropriate.” 

He looked back at Joyce, thinking briefly about how not appropriate it was for her to be sitting that close to him, poking him in the side like that, how quickly they’d fallen back into their old habits. 

“Hop, you gotta let them grow up a little,” she said, a little softer this time. 

“I don’t like it,” he groaned, putting a hand over his eyes. 

“I know what you mean,” she said, tugging at his arm to pull his hand away from his eyes. 

It was illegal, the way she casually touched him like that. She had no idea what it did to him. Hopper looked at her, barely managing to keep himself from holding onto her hand as she pulled it back. 

“Joyce, you let Nancy Wheeler sleep over at your house whenever she fucking pleases,” he said seriously. “How could you possibly know what I mean?” 

It was Joyce’s turn to roll her eyes. 

“It’s like I always say, Hop,” she said. “If you order them around, they’ll do the opposite of what you want them to do.” 

“Well, El and Mike are a little too young to be sleeping over, anyway,” Hopper said. 

“I know it’s hard,” Joyce put a hand on his shoulder. It was probably supposed to be comforting but actually just wound him up even more. 

“But El’s a smart girl,” Joyce continued when Hopper didn’t say anything. She squeezed his shoulder again. His stomach flipped. 

He loved these little moments, these times when Joyce would share her single-parent wisdom with him. Even if it set him on fire to have her that close to him, he would endure it if it meant he got to soak in a little of her warmth. 

“What?” Joyce quirked her head to one side, and Hop realized he had been staring. 

“Nothing,” he said quickly, shaking his head. 

Joyce had a knowing look in her eye but left it alone. Shit. He really needed to keep a lid on it, or he was going to give himself away. 

For better or for worse, El’s door burst open and the kids all came tumbling out. 

Dustin was yelling about victory, Will was smiling happily, and El just looked kind of confused. 

“Good campaign?” Joyce turned away from Hopper to address Will. 

“It was great,” Will said, smiling. 

Hopper always admired the way Joyce and her boys were so close, the way being a family came to naturally to them even in the struggles they’d had. It was something he was still learning, with El. As long as he had Joyce to show him the way, he figured he’d get there eventually. 

It didn’t stop him from scowling slightly at Mike, who emerged last from El’s bedroom. 

He felt a sharp poke on his side and yelped. 

“Jim,” Joyce said in a hushed voice. 

He thought he would melt every time she called him Jim, but he tried to look annoyed. 

“What?” He replied in an equally hushed tone. 

She rolled her eyes at him. 

“You know what.” 

He rolled his eyes right back at her. 

No, he was never going to stop scowling at Mike. Even if Joyce was right, which she probably was. 

He especially wouldn’t if it meant she would call him Jim.


End file.
